An Orange County sheriff's deputy tapes off a crime scene in this 2009 file photo. BRUCE CHAMBERS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Most agree that taxpayers should pay police well for risking their lives in the line of duty.

But should they be paid for the time they spend strapping on their gun belt and bulletproof vest? Or tying their boot laces? What if the department insists they dress in the stationhouse, instead of at home?

Hundreds of Orange County Sheriff’s deputies sued the department between 2005 and 2012, saying they spent up to 30 minutes getting dressed before work, and up to 28 minutes undressing – and they weren’t getting compensated.

Donning and doffing, the legal term for putting on or taking off work clothes, made headlines last month when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a steel company couldn’t be forced to compensate its workers for the time it takes them to put on safety gear such as flame-retardant jackets and pants.

In the case of Sandifer v. United States Steel Corporation, the high court ruled most of that safety gear was a form of clothing. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the court said, employers cannot be required to pay workers for donning work clothes unless both sides agree to that as part of a union contract.

While attorneys say that case applies directly to the issues raised by Orange County deputies, it won’t help county officials.

That’s because the county spent millions fighting the donning and doffing issue in federal court – won a victory – and then settled in 2012 rather than litigate an appeal.

The court battle, which has cost the county $3.7 million in legal fees, cash settlements and time off for deputies, has received little public attention.

A previous federal court case had established that police departments can’t be forced to pay for officers’ donning and doffing if the officers can get dressed at home. So a federal court judge sided with the Sheriff’s Department and dismissed deputies’ class-action suit.

“The vital law enforcement activities of deputies do not require the deputies to put on and take off their pants, shirts and boots at work,” U.S. District Court Judge Cormac Carney wrote in a 2010 opinion.

Deputies threatened to appeal the donning and doffing decision to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Additionally, 130 deputies had filed individual lawsuits complaining about other “off-the-clock” work such as maintaining equipment, working through meal breaks, preparing for briefings, checking out equipment, preparing reports and walking to and from work areas.

“If you’re working 10 hours, but you’re only being paid for nine, after a while that adds up to a considerable amount of time,” plaintiff’s attorney Greg Hafif said this week.

After two years of mediation and negotiations, the court approved a settlement between the two sides in 2012, nearly seven years after deputy Margaret Reed filed the first complaint.

About 850 deputies received some sort of settlement. The ones who filed individual lawsuits received the most: $8,000, plus 40 hours of leave time or an additional $1,600. Others received up to 20 hours of leave or up to $600, depending on when they joined in the court process.

County officials said they have paid out about $1.6 million in cash, wages or leave-time credits.

The protracted legal wrangling meant high attorneys’ fees too. As part of the settlement, the county agreed to pay $400,000 in legal costs to the plaintiffs. The county’s legal defense fees, including the outside law firm of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, cost $1.8 million.

This week, county officials defended their decision to settle a case they had already won, saying there was too much uncertainty.

“You could have some massive liability,” county Human Resources Director Steve Danley said this week. “You don’t know where the court’s going to go.”

The department formalized some policies after the Reed settlement. Jailers, for instance, must now sign in and out for their lunch breaks, while before it wasn’t tracked, said department spokesman Lt. Jeff Hallock.

“Every department employee will be paid for every hour worked,” Hallock said, summing up the revised policy.

As for putting on those pants, vest and gun, the department doesn’t pay for the 58 minutes deputies once claimed they spent donning and doffing. But a long-standing rule in the deputies’ contract allows them to be paid for 15 minutes at the end of each shift for washing up, putting away tools and other activities that could include changing clothes.

Sandifer vs. U.S. Steel will likely have little bearing on two remaining cases, attorneys for the county and plaintiffs say.

Deputies Guy Olschewske and Jeff Weaver are still suing for wages and damages for, among other activities, missed meal breaks and the “time spent walking to and from” locker rooms, roll-call, the briefing room and the equipment room.

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